Deadly Overnight Shooting at Crooked Tree Junction
Reece Riverol
A father of two is dead following a shooting incident on Monday night near the entrance to Crooked Tree Village. By all accounts, Reece Riverol was quiet and troubled no one. But last night, he was targeted by an unknown gunman who lured him out of his home by throwing rocks at his house. When Riverol went outside to see what was happening, he was pounced upon with lethal precision, shot once in the back and left for dead at his front door. News Five’s Isani Cayetano headed to Crooked Tree today and has the following story.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
A deadly shooting incident at a residence near mile thirty-one on the Philip Goldson Highway has shattered a Belize City family. According to his sister, thirty-year-old Reece Riverol was at home along with his girlfriend and their two children on Monday night, shortly after nine o’clock, when someone threw a stone at the house. Her brother stepped outside to investigate the attack on two occasions and ended up being mortally wounded by gunfire.
Royann Riverol
Royann Riverol, Sister of Deceased
“We get a phone call, you know, from my sister-in-law, his girlfriend, and she told us that they were inside and they heard like a stone on the rooftop and so Reece went out and he was looking to see if he saw anyone and, unfortunately, there was no one so he went back inside.”
Riverol reportedly told his common-law wife that he was feeling a bit hungry. It was during that brief conversation that stones were once again hurled at their house.
Royann Riverol
“After that, he heard another stone on his rooftop and he went outside back and when he went outside, he didn’t see anyone again and on his way, making his way back to his house, by his door, that’s when he was shot in his back, you know. He didn’t even make it inside, but all that he could have said was, “Babe, babe, ah just get shot. I just get shot, dehn shot me.” Ih seh, “Ah dead.” That’s when he collapsed on the ground and no pulse, no breath, nothing.”
Isani Cayetano
“One single shot?”
Royann Riverol
“One single shot. One single shot and it seems as though it was a close shot.”
It is unclear why anyone would attack the laborer. When we asked his older sibling, Royann Riverol, earlier today if her brother had anyone known enemies or recent misunderstandings, she said no.
Reece Riverol
Isani Cayetano
“What comes to mind here as to why someone would attack Reece in the manner that they did?”
Royann Riverol
“To be honest, Reece isn’t a trouble person, unless you trouble him and he hasn’t had any enemies or, you know, or anyone that is threatening him. So that’s puzzling to know that someone shot my brother for no reason at all, you know, and it’s really sad, it’s really, really sad.”
Isani Cayetano
“How is the girlfriend and the kids? How are they holding up?”
Royann Riverol
“She is barely holding up. She hasn’t slept from last night. She is traumatized by the whole thing and every now and then she is crying and I can only imagine how she feels. The little boy that is like about three or four, he wants to know exactly what happened to Reece and what can we say, you know. He doesn’t know exactly what is happening and the other child that is left is his three-month-old baby.”
Reece Riverol had been living near the Crooked Tree Junction for the past six or seven years.
Royann Riverol
“There [are] so much questions as to why, why my brother, you know. Why did they take away our little gentle giant, you know, why? Why did they take away a father from his two young children, you know.”
Isani Cayetano for News Five.
